Word Play Masters Invitational

For years an email has been circulating about the “Washington Post's Mensa invitational” which includes a very clever list of words made by changing common words.

The most recent email circulation listed the “2009 winners”. Those of you who have received this email probably noticed it was very similar to the “2008 winners”. In fact, they’re also very similar to many of the 1998 winners! (UPDATE: The very same "2014" list is now in circulation – check Google!)

So, many, many years ago someone ran a contest and it’s been circulating on the internet ever since.

But hey, it’s a good idea. So we thought we’d collect words here. We started this site on a whim in 2010 and it's grown every year since. We get hundreds of words a year and post the ones that are fun, funny or useful.

Please feel free to send us your words and definitions on the Submit Words page. We’ll post anything that’s clean (meaning your very bright 7 year old can read it without you wincing). Once a year we’ll have a contest to determine the winners (with no scientific validity whatsoever).

If you want to enter the contest, there's nothing to do but send in a word for consideration. A panel of "experts", made up of some clever previous winners, determines the final winners each year.

THIS SITE IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THE WASHINGTON POST!

The chick at the Washington Post who still runs whatever it is they do over there sends me regular emails to let me know they're still running contests. So if you want to see them, you can google that. I think she's an empress or something.

You can now click around on this site because we've come up with eight (8 – count 'em!) pages, a 300% increase from the original two pages. In addition to this page and the page of words for each year, we've added a submission page. We've also set it up as a blog so we can now accept comments. Please try not to submit words in the comments section, since then we have to copy everything and it may never make the lists.

Feel free to email this list anywhere you want. It’s not ours. We don’t own it. We haven’t copyrighted it. We don’t want to. We just want to have some fun with words!

ORIGINAL EMAIL:

The Washington Post's Mensa invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the 2009 winners: 1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time. 2. Ignoranus : A person who's both stupid and an asshole. 3. Intaxication : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a hillbilly. 5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. 8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. 9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. 10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.) 11. Karmageddon : It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. 13. Glibido : All talk and no action. 14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web. 16. Beelzebug (n.) : Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out. 17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating. The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are: 1. Coffee , n. The person upon whom one coughs. 2. Flabbergasted , adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained. 3. Abdicate , v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. Esplanade , v.. To attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. Willy-nilly , adj. Impotent. 6. Negligent , adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown. 7. Lymph , v. To walk with a lisp. 8. Gargoyle , n. Olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. Flatulence , n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller. 10. Balderdash , n. A rapidly receding hairline. 11. Testicle , n. A humorous question on an exam. 12. Rectitude , n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. Pokemon , n.. A Rastafarian proctologist. 14. Oyster , n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 15. Frisbeetarianism , n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. 16. Circumvent , n. An opening in the front of jockey shorts worn by Jewish men